Special Issue: Talents for Tea
MingCha Newsletter June 2006
www.mingcha.com.hk
© 2006 Lee Kwan Tea Trade Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Product News
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Talents for Tea
特輯：茶業的人才問題
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After hours: Two of our most talented Tea-Masters-to-be’s, Humphrey and Olivia, taking a break after the hectics of the day at the Star Shop.The harvest this year brings not only some batches of pleasant surprises, but also some new products to further broaden the variation of our selections. In this issue, however, we shall discuss only a couple of them and leave the spot light to the theme — staff quality. More information about products will appear in subsequent issues.
My own time has been quite completely divided up by production, training, new business development, straigtening out glitches in the operation, and shop duties because of staff shortage, leaving not much time for writing, let alone enough rests. That is why this issue of the Infuser has taken so long. Apologies. Hope the delay is worth some great news for upcoming issues.
A good customer, Carlos Higuchi, generously volunteered to contribute an article that wonderously goes along with the theme. Although not all articles are bilingual yet in this issue, my colleagues have been insistent to make the translation for the two major pieces of writing, which we hope tell more about our conditions now. Kindly share with us your comments.
Enjoy the read.
Leo Kwan
New Releases, Aged and Matured
Our puers have been so well appreciated that all our three selections, Golden Tip, X’tra Old Tippy, and even the Special Reserve Wild Puer were sold out in the last season. There has been a time when all our outlets were fighting for the remaining few cans.
The reason that we have not immediately re-shelved with another batch was that the upcoming one was not matured enough for release yet: we had not expected such depletion rate! Well, it has been matured for packing since end of last month, and our Golden Tip Puer (MCC501) is on the shelves now.
even sweeter and rounder
A Spring harvest from Menghai, classically processed and well den-matured, dry, clean, and neat small leaves, this batch of true Puer tastes even sweeter and rounder than the previous one, and with a distinctive tangerine undertone. Just look out for the batch seal as indicated in the illustration to try it out for yourselves.
Pay attention also to the next releases of other MingCha Puer products (definitely NOT tea cakes).
Another release that I”d like to introduce here is the White Peony Supreme (MCC 301).
long, floral and malty
The batch that we present here in all spots in Hong Kong is the very best from Zhenghe, in the authentic traditional full-body style. The young first flush leaves are very dark grey, with well-attached buds in grayish silvery down, a sign of good sun-withering and traditional long fermentation. The taste is long, floral and malty.
This particular batch compares interestingly with the immediate previous batch from Fuding, just a few hours east of Zhenghe, where the traditional style is greener, lighter and the taste much more straight-forward. The current batch is good for maturing as well: its taste should become fuller with age.
Leo Kwan
Chocolate, the Finest from France
Sometimes, one would feel indulgence is the richest part of living that Life itself can offer. We feel that rich, dark, smooth and distinctive chocolate is the most indulgent a tea snack can be. Imagine enjoying a rich, silky infusion of Golden Tip Puer and biting in a dense, velvety and ready-to-melt ganache with a crispy, aromatic dark chocolate shell in a distinctive cocao character for your next teatime at MingCha.
70% Grand Cru Guanaja shell with as rich a lustrous ganache filling...
Introducing the Grand Cru creations from Chocolate Unlimited. Flew in weekly fresh from Tain-L’Hermitage (near Lyon, France), the skillfully handmade chocolates are each a work of art.
Take Granite Framboise et Litchi (above, left one), for example, the aroma of a rich dark chocolate with a high note of raspberry, in an elegant slanted cup shape that enhances the biting experience and a surprisingly fruity centre made with raspberry and li-chi. Or the sophisticated Palet Or (right three), a 70% Grand Cru Guanaja shell with as rich a lustrous ganache filling. Maybe you’d like also to try Forêt Noire (left two) or Operá, the unforgettable flavours of the traditional pastry delivered in the astonishingly small package that is the chocolate itself.
a western sweet in the same caliber of our own tea
12 to 16 flavours (dependent on your luck the day of your visit) are ready at the MingCha Star Shop for you to experiment pairing them with different MingCha teas. We are glad that there is finally a western sweet in a caliber that we can present comfortably with our tea.
Try this pairing idea: Silver Needle Supreme with Arwen (right one, top photo), a creative combination of milk and dark chocolate excited with a sparing blend of Breton pancake flakes.
MingCha
Guide to Premium Chinese Tea
5th Printing Available Now
The much awaited 5th printing of the MingCha Guide to Premium Chinese Tea is available at last. Since there have been quite a large number of customers requesting this book, it is quite impossible for us to call each one up for the notice. This piece of news serves the purpose. Please come to a MingCha spot near you to get your copy while stock lasts.
Carlos Higuchi: Sharing
This is a personal story on how “Tea”, or the whole experience surrounding Tea, has added another dimension to my life.
As long as I can remember, my mother and father who is of Japanese origin has made tea a part of my daily life. Even through my childhood in the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, the Mate cha tea hawker would carry this large white box across the hot sand to sell cold, sweetened Mate cha to thirsty mouths during hotter days in Brazil.
As a professional in finance for more than 16 years, I had the opportunity to travel and live in many cities such as London, New York, Tokyo where the chance to buy and consume many type of teas over the years but really not paying attention. However, my one year in Hong Kong especially the last 5 months has allowed me to realize how much more enjoyment there is in tea drinking.
MingCha Star Shop at 7 Star Street, Wanchai
I had found a special place
As our company moved to Star Street in Pacific Place Three, I found a teashop across the street from the building entrance — MingCha tea shop. What caught my eye were the beautiful teapots on display on the wall as I looked through the large glass windows. I knew I had to walk in to look at the display and satisfy my curiosity. Walking in the door, my eyes scanned the whole room and saw further beautiful teapots, tea cans and packages along the walls and also a bar counter and seats with photographs of many different types of tealeaves behind the bar counter. The counter was built to make tea in front of the person sitting and to watch the tea infusion process. I realized then that I had found a special place.
Over the years, besides having the developed love of good food, wines, and single malt scotch whiskies, olive oil and many other interests, tea was always something that had not captured my drive to learn and become a connoisseur. Perhaps because I grew up in a Japanese family environment drinking green tea with cakes and not caring beyond the basics of not putting in boiling water on the green teas of Japan and storing the teas by putting it in a air tight cylindrical can.
Where one seeks excellence in things
During my travels I would buy Chinese tea such as Puerh (Puers), Tek Quan Yin (Teguanyins), Oolong and Jasmine tea for myself and parents in duty free shops at the airport or specialty shops in New York or Hong Kong. The experience was always a sales person telling me that the tea was of special and high grade in a nice packaging.
MingCha has changed how I look at the tea experience. I have now since realized that I really did not know anything about the grades of tea, quality and even how to make proper infusion of tea. If one's personality is similar to myself, where one seeks excellence in things we have interest in, ie. food, wine, cigars etc, I had found the most appropriate setting to learn about “Tea” from a true tea house in Hong Kong. In Japan this could be an intimidating experience as the formality of tea or way of tea has become a rigid art form than an approachable subject. MingCha teashop has made tea approachable and allowed my confidence in the subject of tea to grow from ignorance to a novice.
Is it communal?
Leo Kwan, a tea master, and his apprentice staff at MingCha is bringing back something old to a new light. The “Art of drinking tea”. It begins with the care of being able to source and bring from China quality teas to the market place. I do not believe that MingCha is the only one to have quality tea in their shop; however, I have not experienced any other tea shop where the knowledge level of the staff and their kindness in imparting this knowledge have been so forthcoming.
The reality is that the buying of good tealeaf alone does not bring a smile to the face. The person who is making the tea infusion, his state of mind and heart has much to do with whether the tea will be sweet or bitter. Is tea drinking spiritual? I would say yes. Is tea drinking medicinal? I would once again say yes. Is it communal? Definitely.
I have another love
Leo Kwan at MingCha is not preaching the above but has given others and me the path to understanding how to look, infuse, taste and enjoy tea and in the process imparting a high standard measure in how to become a tea connoisseur.
My days ahead now has another exciting adventure that I can look forward to. I have another love and interest for me to share with old and new friends — TEA
Carlos Higuchi
Carlos Higuchi used to patronize the MingCha Star Shop a few times a week when he did not have to be traveling. He is currently in Tokyo setting up a new business venture for a major Japanese financial corporation. And his new home. He prepares X’tra Old Tippy Puer in thick Yixing pots and drink from a Japanese handcrafted cup made of special clay. His other best-loved MingCha tea is Phoenix Sung Special.
Why are we always hiring?
One of our tea master trainees walked into a coffee shop nearby and was asked why we had always been hiring. They were suspecting if our staff turnover, like other F&B business, was high. The trainee told me about the conversation and raised my idea for this little writing here.
The fact is, our turnover is not high at all, considering even in normal office term, never mind F&B. The real reason is, we have never been able to hire enough people in each staff drive, and as we expand, the shortage of people is more obvious.
Vivien, one of our best frontline Tea Evangelists,
shows the difference of a finer teguanyin during
a tea workshop.The one capacity that we need to fill most is that for tea master trainees.
Today, a customer who attended a tasting session I conducted came down to the shop and saw our newest trainee. She immediately asked after her health and whether she had enough rest after all those frontline shifts. The sophisticated lady then turned to me giving a lecture about treating my staff well so as to retain them and how high qualification this trainee was and I should be careful not to lose her.
College graduates seldomly want to join the tea trade
Obviously she is very kind-hearted and cares about the welfare both of this particular staff member as well as my business, but had she known us better, she would have realized that most of my trainees have been retained in this past year. I do treat them the best we can and they are of very high caliber. The reason we are not able to hire enough in each drive is cultural: college graduates of some achievements seldomly want to join the tea trade: in Hong Kong, it has traditionally been a trade requiring not much education or specialization.
A tour to the Hong Kong Museum of History is a good demonstration. A reconstructed teashop in the history lane carries a vocal recording of an old teashop keeper muttering about tea with sheer misunderstandings and folksy assumptions. Today, when one walks into most teashops, the situation has not changed much, other than the slightly nicer uniforms (albeit gaudy Chinatown style mostly), instead of the off-white underwear T-shirts of the old days.
This overly-quoted “knowledge-based economy”
Unlike selling legal or financial services, big machines or even real estates, selling tea is not attractive enough to people who can afford other career choices. There has been no motivation in it other than the commission from a traditionally low sales turnover.
As we evolve into the so-called Pacific Century, as we in Hong Kong try to transform into this overly-quoted “knowledge-based economy”, what do we do with an old trade, an old commodity like tea?
MingCha has been created to re-define how premium tea can be an integral part of contemporary daily life. We'd like to see professionalism, product knowledge, customer service and user-friendly interfaces in a global product, shunning away from what the industry has been accustomed to: myths, exoticism, paternal domination and sentiments of the nouveau riche.
An integral part of contemporary daily life
That is why we need to work with the best of what the workforce of Hong Kong has to provide. We’d like to think that we are creating a worldly brand, a new profession.
The potential of the brand is no more secret: there is a huge pressure to open more outlets and therefore we need people to help us do so, on top of the under-staffed situation of the present operation.
Therefore we are on the constant recruitment drive.
Leo Kwan
這是我的個人經歷，關於茶怎樣為我的生活加添了更多色彩。
記憶所及，日本裔的父母在我年幼時，已使茶成為我生活的一部份。就算小時候在巴西里奧熱內盧的沙灘上，已經常看著那些賣Mate茶的小販提著白色大箱，踏過酷熱的黃沙，把加了糖的冰涼Mate茶送給一個個乾渴的嘴巴。
找到了一個特別的地方
這十六年來，因著本身財經工作的需要，我有很多機會到世界各大城市居住或旅遊，好像倫敦、紐約、東京 等，故此常可以接觸到不同種類的茶。可是我一直未有因此而對茶產生興趣。這情況卻因今年來港工作而改變，尤其是這最後的五個月，我開始領略到茶有多麼的趣味。
當我的公司遷至星街太古廣場三期，我發現在公司對面有一間茶店 —〈明茶房〉。店內一個個美麗的茶壼，透過落地玻璃窗及引了我的注意，為了滿足好奇心和可以仔細欣賞那些茶壺，我非走進店內一看不可！趟開玻璃店門，發現更多精緻的茶壼，還有一罐罐包裝精緻的茶葉整齊排列在架子上。店內有一個茶吧，茶吧後面有許多不同種類的茶葉照片。吧檯的設計是讓客人坐下來時，可以細看茶師泡茶的過程。這一刻，我知道自己找到了一個特別的地方。
在香港找到了一間真正的茶店
這些年來，我對美食、紅酒、橄欖油、單一麥芽威士忌等事物皆十分著迷，但是茶還未能使我產生興趣去學習，成為鑑賞家。其中一個原因可能是由於我生長於一個日本家庭，時常邊喝日本綠茶，邊吃蛋糕，除了明白泡茶水不用煮沸、茶葉須存於密封 茶罐中這等小常識以外，其他的總是掉以輕心。
另外一個原因，是由於四處遊歷，所以總能在機場的免稅店，或香港、紐約等地的專門店中買到很多中國茶，像普洱、鐵觀音、烏龍、茉莉花茶等自用或給我的家人。但是，那些店舖的職員只會不停的說這些茶很特別，那種茶品質很好，自然未能吸引我去作更深入的探索。
但〈明茶房〉卻給我截然不同的體驗。在那裡，我明白到自己以前不單未懂得分辨茶的等級及類別，甚至乎不懂得如何去泡一杯好茶。如果你跟我一樣，對自己感到興趣的事物，例如食物、紅酒、雪茄等，追尋至極的質素，我告訴你我已在香港找到了一間真正的茶店、一個最適當學茶的地方。在日本，茶已演變成一個死板的、千篇一律的藝術，使人難以接近。但在〈明茶房〉，茶卻變得容易明白，使我有自信跨進茶世界的門檻。
高專業知識水平的職員
〈明茶房〉的茶師傅關仲良先生及他的一眾徒生，將茶這種傳統文化以一個新角度展示出來。他們讓我明白品茶這種藝術須由尋找上品原料開始，直至推出市場的每一個小節。我相信〈明茶房〉並非這世上唯一售賣如此優質茶葉的店舖，但是我卻未能在其他地方找到具這麼高專業知識水平的職員，而又能與人友善分享的地方。
茶除了是一種飲料外，更能使心靈平靜愉悅，並能調理身體，但茶最重要的，是它分享的本質。單是優質茶葉的本身並不能帶給人們愉快。要與人分享茶的內容，除了要講究泡茶技巧外，泡茶者的心情和狀態更能影響到一杯茶是苦是甜。
一個探索目標
〈明茶房〉的關仲良先生並不說教般推廣，他只是開闢了一條路徑、指引出一個高水平，使我及其他對茶有興趣的人明白怎樣去找尋、沖泡、品嚐，乃至享受茶所帶來的樂趣，成為一位真正懂茶的鑑賞家。
今後，我的生活有幸多了一個探索目標、一個我樂於和新知舊雨分享的心頭好 — 茶。
原文：Carlos Higuchi
翻譯：雀仔
四個關於茶和紫砂壺的工作坊剛剛結束，不過學茶的經歷又豈止此？你的經歷又是怎樣呢？
由第一課作為助手，到最後一課換成學生，不同的角色和角度都令我有不同的得著。是助手，令我見到各參加者的“初試啼聲”，令我見到幾個月前的自己，令我見到用認真的態度和茶接觸就好像為找一個結婚對象而認認真真的談戀 愛一樣；是學生，令我想起讀書時代，令我想起做學問不能不聞不問，令我想起真的要“想一想”。
亦在學習，亦在生活
四個不同的工作坊，有相同有不同的學生，有熟悉的面孔，也有早幾天才踏足香港的新鮮人，有不同的語言…豈止足球是大家的共同語言，茶更是「不可言喻」呢！如果你對茶有點感覺，相信你在某程度上也認同我的感受吧！
要感受，要體會，要細味，且慢，不單是茶，亦在學習，亦在生活。我的學習，正始於此。你的，希望有機會能在【明茶房】的茶吧和你分享！
文：健怡
某次，我們其中一位見習茶師走進附近一家咖啡店，閒聊間被問到為甚麼我們總是在請人呢？人們懷疑MingCha的員工是否如其他飲食業一樣流失率高。我聽過她覆述以上的對話後，就引起我寫這篇小記的念頭。
事實上，我們的流失率一點也不高。遑論飲食業，與一般寫字樓文職比較亦然。真實的情況乃是我們每一次招聘都無法請到足夠的人手，而我們的擴充令人手短缺 來得更嚴重。
當中最需要填補的空缺 是見習茶師。
該好好相待，不要讓她溜走
今日試茶班過後，一位學員從閣樓離開時，遇見剛加入我們公司不久的見習茶師。她第一時間問候茶師的健康及在前線早、晚換更工作以外有沒有足夠休息。這位世故而成熟的女士大讚她是如何的優秀，更轉頭來教我該好好相待，小心不要讓她溜走。
顯然，這位善良的女士不但愛惜該位同事，亦更關心我的生意。但如果她對我們了解深一點，就會發現過去一年來大部份的見習茶師都留下來繼續發展。我欣賞並盡力禮待這班高水準的同事。事實上，令我們一直難以找到好人選的原因在於本土的文化：茶葉事業一向不倚 靠高學歷、有特別專長的人員，以致稍有才幹的大學畢業生鮮會投身茶葉生意。
市井間的信口雌黃
到香港歷史博物館走一趟便會明白。歷史徑內仿建的舊式茶店裡頭，播放著老店員嘮嘮叨叨地講解茶的故事，內容卻都是市井間的信口雌黃、粗 略假設。可惜時至今日，所踏進的大部份茶店，情景和歷史徑所聽所聞實在沒有大分別。惟有店員的汗衫已變成比較整潔的制服而已（儘管是多麼的俗麗唐人街風味）。
有別於提供法律或理財服務，又或售賣大型機械或房地產，茶葉生意相比之下總是予人蠅頭小利的感覺，即使有佣金也加不了多少吸引力。所以賣茶對有能力勝任其他行業的人來說一點也提不起勁。
簡易的接觸平台
當我們進入了所謂的「太平洋世紀」；當香港正嘗試轉型成所謂的「知識型經濟」，茶這個傳統行業、傳統的日用飲品，到底何去何從？ 中國茶一直以來與浮誇失實、唐人街文化、父權主義和暴發戶心態沾邊。MingCha的創辦是為了重新定義上品茶如何能緊扣現代人日常生活。我們所要做到的理念乃是專業、產品知識、顧客服務及簡易的接觸平台。
求才若渴，乃因為我們有信念要創造一個世界性 的品牌。
除了現時前線面對人手不足的情況外，我們同時承受增加分店的壓力。品牌的潛力無限，實在需要很多幫手。
故此，我們才總是在請人。
原文：Leo Kwan
翻譯：思
Now Recruiting
Tea Master Trainees (2 openings)
- To present tea to customers in a professional way
- To manage different outlets
- On successful completion of training, may be promoted or transferred to other positions, including sales, marketing, production and administration
- Degree holders with communication skills
- Intensive
training will be provided
Shop Assistant
- To help in running a shop that sells and serves tea, chocolate, pastries, etc and related products
- Careful, organised and tidy
- Fluent
in Cantonese and English
Cook
- to prepare dishes for 24-seat tea bar, mainly steamed products and noodles
- demanding in presentation, ingredient quality and food safety;
- related experience and management skills;
- proper
formal training in culinary craft desirable, but may substitute with
experience
Please let us know what you think by writing to us.
© 2006 Lee Kwan Tea Trade Limited. 1 Hoi Wan Street, Quarry Bay Hong Kong. phone: (852) 2882 9812
All Rights Reserved.
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